Two teens killed by Chicago police after pointing guns, police say

By Mary Wisniewski

By Mary Wisniewski CHICAGO (Reuters) - Two teens were shot to death by Chicago police in separate incidents on Sunday after they refused to drop their guns and pointed them at officers, police and a police union spokesman said on Monday. In the first incident, gang enforcement officers responded to a complaint of armed men on a west side block. When officers arrived, one of the men fled into a passageway and drew a handgun from his waistband, police said in a statement. The suspect ran up a back staircase of a building, according to police union spokesman Pat Camden. An officer ordered the man to drop his gun, but he pointed it in the officer's direction, and the officer shot him, police said. He was identified as Roshad McIntosh, 19, of Chicago, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office. In the second incident, there was an exchange of gunfire on a south side street, and when police arrived, one of the suspects pointed his gun at them. Police ordered him to drop his gun, and when he refused to comply, he was shot, police said. "If you point a gun at a policeman, I guarantee you will get shot," Camden said. Camden said the second person shot by police was believed to be 17, and that police in this incident were rookies on foot patrol. Police did not provide the 17-year-old's identity. Three people were hospitalized from the initial exchange of gunfire, police said. The shootings are being investigated by the Independent Police Review Authority, which already has interviewed some of the witness officers, and will interview the officers involved in the shooting in the next day or so, according to spokesman Larry Merritt. The authority also is trying to identify other witnesses, Merritt said. Police-involved shootings have received increased national attention in recent weeks because of the police shooting of an unarmed teen in a St. Louis suburb on Aug. 9, which has led to sometimes violent protests. (Reporting by Mary Wisniewski; Editing by Jim Loney and Bill Trott)